What's Happening

In October 2016, Dan Ashe, Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), and Wendi Weber, Northeast Regional Director of the Service, approved Great Thicket National Wildlife Refuge (NWR)—a new refuge dedicated to managing shrubland habitat for wildlife in the Northeast. The Service can now start working with partners and willing-seller property owners to identify opportunities to acquire priority lands in fee simple or conservation easement within the designated focus areas of Great Thicket NWR.

The 10 units of Stewart B. McKinney National Wildlife Refuge include a variety of habitats from grassy upland to tidal salt marsh. Though many refuge units are small in acreage, their importance to wildlife, especially migratory birds, is enormous.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designated the Urban Oases project in the New Haven Harbor Watershed as an Urban Wildlife Refuge Partnership. Learn more by visiting our Urban Oasis Project page below.

Did you know that there is a native cactus in Connecticut? Yes, Opuntia humifusa or the prickly-pear grows in all eastern states except Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire. Although it is rare and listed as a species of special concern in the state, you can find it on several units of the Stewart B. McKinney NWR.